Letters: Welcome Elon Musk's promise of SpaceX, while insisting land be treated with respect

Our family has owned farmland in Jefferson Davis Parish for generations. We steward a coastal prairie restoration project there, as well as a working rice and crawfish farm, a solar project, a certified industrial site and hunting and fishing — all about 100 miles from the planned Starbase Louisiana site. We care about innovation and deeply respect the integrity of our ancestral property. Faimon Roberts (Aug. 27) and James Whelan (Sept. 1) miss the larger point. SpaceX's $100 billion plan is the largest private investment in state history. Officials project 3,000 permanent jobs paying nearly twice the Vermilion Parish average, plus more than 8,000 construction and indirect jobs. The $100 million paid for former ExxonMobil marshland is slated for coastal restoration. Vermilion Parish is to receive more than $820 million over 25 years in lieu of taxes, plus $25 million for the Community Foundation of Acadiana. SpaceX has pledged to work with the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and wildlife agencies. That is not a giveaway of empty marshland. It is a chance for southwest Louisiana — farms, restoration work and industrial sites like ours — to share in high-wage work and related development instead of watching another generation leave Louisiana. Tesla made electric vehicles and grid storage ordinary. SpaceX cut the cost of reaching orbit and restored American-crewed launches. Starlink already serves rural homes and disaster zones when fiber cannot. We can welcome that kind of industry and still insist the coast and farmland be treated with respect. Those two aims are not enemies. CHARLOTTE LANDRY Baton Rouge Want to see your opinion published in The Advocate | Times-Picayune? Submit a letter to the editor.